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Speech
has Munchak thinking
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| BY
DONNIE COLLINS / STAFF WRITER
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August
04, 2001 |
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CANTON,
Ohio -- Mike Munchak is worried.
And the same guy who punished bigger, faster
defensive linemen for the better part of 12
years in the National Football League doesn't
get nervous often. |
Shortly
after 11:30 this morning, Munchak will speak
before about 10,000 fans packed in front of
the main entrance to the Pro Football Hall of
Fame, where he will be inducted as a member.
His main goal is to keep the attitude he's
held his entire life.
Remember the people who got you there. All of
them.
"I really just don't want to forget
anybody," Munchak says.
Munchak spent weeks before the speech crafting
exactly what he would say. His parents, Mike
Sr. and Paula, said Friday their son had
finished his speech, but was keeping the
contents tight-lipped even to them.
While what he says will be a surprise, the
chances of the word "Scranton" being
said a few times are as solid as Munchak's
play.
"I probably will mention a lot of people
from Scranton," he says. "I love the
area, and I love the people. They might not
have all been Penn State fans or Oilers fans,
but they were fans of me and of my career,
because they feel like they were a part of it.
"And they were."
Munchak said Scrantonians have followed his
career since his high school days at Scranton
Central. A group of fans also conducted bus
trips to see games in Pittsburgh, Buffalo and
Washington, D.C. when he was a pro with the
Houston Oilers.
"You don't hear about that in any other
city, of people interested to that
magnitude," Munchak said. "Forty or
fifty people flew down (to Houston) from
Scranton when they retired my jersey. It was
very special for me.
"A lot of people were very interested in
what I was doing. And it's important for them
to know that athletes care about that. I
appreciated it."
And besides, Munchak says the city he still
visits for several weeks every summer - the
city that beloved family members and good
friends call home - couldn't go without a
mention on one of the biggest days of his
life.
"To me," he says, "Scranton is
where it all started."
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| İScranton
Times Tribune 2001 |
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